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Saturday, October 15, 2016

Emperor Barry the Lame ignores his Cuban Missile Crisis

Once upon a time, Democrat presidents responded when Russia made threatening moves toward the United States. When the Soviet Union put nuclear missiles in Cuba, President John Kennedy responded with a naval blockade of Cuba and forced the Soviets to back down. Pretty ballsy, all things considered.

Late last week, Vladimir Putin went all-in and executed the brazen geopolitical move of transporting nuclear-capable ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea north of Poland that’s surrounded by NATO countries.
As I told you on Friday, the Kremlin’s deployment of Iskander missiles, what NATO calls SS-26s, into Kaliningrad is a direct challenge to the Atlantic Alliance, since it puts all of Poland and the Baltic republics into range for a sudden nuclear strike. An Iskander’s flight time from Kaliningrad to Warsaw is just two minutes, so NATO would functionally have no warning.
In military terms, this is a game-changer for the Baltic region. Politically, it’s deeply destabilizing too. It’s nothing less than a regional version of the Cuban Missile Crisis, with Moscow placing nuclear missiles close to the Western camp for strategic advantage.

Our allies are just a little concerned, to paraphrase Bob Uecker:

Seriously, the countries in the region that are our allies and are now within range of these nuclear capable missiles are a little worried, to say the least:

Poland and Estonia expressed concerns Saturday that Russia has moved nuclear-capable Iskander ballistic missiles into Kaliningrad, a Russian region on the Baltic Sea, with one official saying Russia appears eager to dominate that body of water.
Russia, meanwhile, says the missiles are being deployed as part of regular military maneuvers to Kaliningrad.
The development comes amid heightened tensions between Russia and the West over Syria.
"It seems to me that this is yet another step in the general context of escalation that we see, at least in rhetoric," said outgoing Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, according to Estonian broadcaster ERR. Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said Poland considers the matter of "highest concern" and is monitoring the situation.

We -- and by we, I mean the administration in general and the so-called president in particular -- have not even publicly mentioned that the Russians have made this highly provocative move. Warsaw, one of our closest allies, now is 20 minutes away from a nuclear strike, and we can't even be bothered to pretend the move even took place, much less that the threat is real. It doesn't have to be a nuclear warhead to destabilize the region. The mere threat of a nuclear strike is enough -- as would be an actual conventional-warhead missile strike. Russia has always viewed Poland as a vassal state. Russia fucking invaded Ukraine, toward which it has always taken a similar view, and we did nothing. Think Poland or the Balkans are feeling safe right now?

About Me

Providing insight with F-bombs, Raised by Wolves is a contract attorney in Washington, D.C. This was not always so. However, RBW plans to remain anonymous in the interests of remaining a contract attorney in Washington, as that is how RBW pays the rent these days. You can reach me at raised.by.a.wolf@gmail.com.